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Chicago Division

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POC: Jeanne White
     

Division History

May 2003
FBI Chicago participated in Operation TopOff II, a nationwide training exercise designed to assist federal and state authorities with investigating and responding to a terrorist attack.

March 2003
Scott Fawell, Chief of Staff to former Illinois Governor George Ryan, was convicted of racketeering.  Fawell became the 65th and highest-ranking defendant in Operation Safe Roads, a five-year investigation of corruption in the Illinois Secretary of State's office under former Governor Ryan.  

January 23, 2003
Chicago-area native Michael Alfonso was placed on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted Fugitives" list.  A registered sex offender, Alfonso is wanted by Illinois authorities for the murder of two former girlfriends.  

August 1, 2002
FBI Chicago opened a satellite office at Chicago's Midway Airport to assist local authorities in providing a strong law enforcement presence in recognition of increasing traffic at the airport. 

July 25, 2002
FBI Chicago selected a location at Roosevelt and Damen in Chicago as the site of its future headquarters building.  The anticipated opening of the office is January 2006.  

June 15, 2001
Betty Loren Maltese, President of the Town of Cicero, was indicted, along with nine others, by a Federal grand jury on charges of wire, mail, and bank fraud and racketeering.  The indictment was the culmination of a five-year investigation headed by the FBI.  Maltese and eight co-defendants subsequently were convicted at trial in August 2002.  

January 2001
The last defendant in Operation Silver Shovel, former Cicero Collector Gerald Resnik, was sentenced in U.S. District Court, bringing to an end the probe of public corruption.  A total of six aldermen and twelve others were convicted in the most successful investigation of public corruption in Chicago's history.

October 19, 2000
William A. Hanhardt, retired chief of detectives for the Chicago Police Department, was charged in a Federal grand jury indictment, along with five others, of masterminding a nationwide jewel theft ring.

December 1998
Chicago Police Officer Joseph Miedzianowski, along with 14 others, was charged with running a drug distribution ring based on Chicago's northwest side.  Described as the most corrupt cop in Chicago's history, Miedzianowski was convicted in U.S. District court in April 2001.

March 26, 1998
The first of several indictments was returned in the federal probe of point-shaving schemes in the Northwestern University football and basketball programs during 1994 and 1995.  A total of eleven individuals, including eight student athletes, was charged and convicted.

July 11, 1996
The first indictment was made in FBI Chicago's Operation Foul Ball.  This nationwide case investigated sports collectible dealers who created and distributed large quantities of forged sports memorabilia, such as jerseys, shoes, bats, balls, hats, and photographs, which were allegedly signed by famous athletes.  By the end of the investigation, a total of seven men had been found guilty of selling forged sports memorabilia.

December 20, 1995
The first indictment was made in FBI Chicago's Operation Silver Shovel, which investigated public corruption in city government.  During the course of the investigation, six City of Chicago Aldermen, in addition to twelve other local officials, were convicted of accepting bribes.

October 19, 1990
A Cook County Circuit Court Judge, an Illinois State Senator, a Chicago Alderman, and two others were charged by a federal grand jury as a result of FBI Chicago's Operation Gambat investigation.  These individuals were charged with crimes relating to corruption in the Cook County Circuit Court, the Illinois Senate, and the Chicago City Council. Four of those charged were convicted; the fifth defendant died awaiting trial.

August 2, 1989
The Attorney General announced the indictment of 46 current and former traders and brokers on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade.  The indictments were the result of a two-year FBI Chicago investigation in which four Agents posed as traders.

November 21, 1986
The first of two federal grand jury indictments was returned as part of the FBI's Operation Incubator.  A total of fourteen local officials were charged with accepting bribes, including a Deputy Water Commissioner, the Cook County Clerk, a former Mayoral Aide, and four Aldermen.

January 21, 1986
Five men, including Joseph Aiuppa, the reputed leader of organized crime in Chicago, were convicted of skimming over two million dollars from Las Vegas casinos that were secretly owned by the mafia.  The direct result of the FBI's Strawman investigation, these convictions virtually eliminated the hierarchy of organized crime in Kansas City, Milwaukee, and Chicago.

August 10, 1984
300 FBI Agents and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Agents, assisted by Cook County State's Attorney Investigators, executed 14 search warrants at suburban Chicago locations as part of Operation Safebet.  This FBI Chicago investigation targeted political corruption and the organized crime control of illegal prostitution activity throughout the Chicago metropolitan area and resulted in the indictment and conviction of more than 75 individuals.

July 20, 1984
Alton Coleman, an FBI "Top Ten" fugitive, was arrested in Evanston, Illinois, following a series of murders, attempted murders, rapes, kidnappings, and auto thefts.  On January 7, 1985, Coleman and his accomplice, Debra Brown, were sentenced to 20 years in prison for the kidnapping of a Kentucky college professor.  On April 30, 1985, Brown was convicted of murder for the beating death of an Ohio woman and sentenced to life imprisonment.  On January 24, 1987, Coleman received his fourth and final death sentence for the murder of a nine-year-old girl.

March 15, 1984
Former Deputy Traffic Court Clerk Harold Conn became the first defendant to be convicted in FBI Chicago's Operation Greylord investigation into corruption in the Cook County Circuit Court.  This was the first undercover operation to investigate corruption in the courtroom, a major turning point in investigating public corruption.  Nearly 100 people, including 13 judges and 51 attorneys, were indicted and convicted as a result of this investigation.

May 28, 1978
a bomb exploded at the University of Illinois at Chicago, injuring one individual.  For the next 17 years, FBI Chicago, along with nearly all of the FBI's 56 field offices, investigated 16 related bombings perpetrated by an individual known as the "Unabomber."  After an extensive investigation, the "Unabomber" was identified as Theodore Kaczynski.  Kaczynski was arrested in April 1996 and later sentenced to life imprisonment  for the bombings, which left three dead and twenty-three others injured.

December 29, 1942
FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover personally led FBI Agents in the Chicago apprehension of Basil "The Owl" Banghart, Roger "The Terrible" Touhy, and Edward Darlak.  They and five members of their gang had escaped from the Stateville Penitentiary in Joliet, Illinois, on October 9, 1942.  Two of the escapees, James O'Connor and St. Clair McInerney, were killed while resisting arrest.

November 27, 1934
Lester E. Gillis, also known as "Baby Face" Nelson, died in a gun battle with FBI Chicago Agents Herman F. Hollis and Samuel Cowley on a highway near Barrington, Illinois.  Both Agents were mortally wounded.

July 22, 1934
Special Agent W. Carter Baum was killed during a gun battle with members of the John Dillinger Gang near Rhinelander, Wisconsin.  Baum was part of a team of FBI Chicago Agents sent to northern Wisconsin after Dillinger and his associates were spotted in a local cabin.

July 22, 1934
FBI Chicago Agents led by SAC Melvin H. Purvis tracked John Herbert Dillinger, public enemy #1, to the Biograph Theater on Chicago's near-west side.  Dillinger was shot and killed by Agents Herman F. Hollis and Samuel Cowley when he attempted to draw a gun, thus ending a thirteen-month crime spree which resulted in ten people dead, seven people wounded, and eleven banks robbed of more than $100,000.

March 27, 1929
Alphonse "Scarface" Capone was arrested by FBI Special Agents in Florida after he failed to appear as a witness in a federal prohibition case in Chicago.

February 14, 1929
The St. Valentine's Day Massacre occurred in Chicago between rival bootlegging gangs.  FBI Chicago conducted ballistics tests in the case, leading to the eventual creation of the FBI Laboratory.

October 11, 1925
Special Agent Edwin J. Shanahan of FBI Chicago became the first FBI Agent to be killed in the line of duty.  Shanahan was shot while attempting to arrest Martin James Durkin, a professional auto thief.  On January 20, 1926, Agents captured Durkin in a railroad car near St. Louis, Missouri, and arrested him for Shanahan's murder.

August 21, 1920
FBI Chicago was created.  At that time, the FBI was known as the Bureau of Investigation.  The first Special Agent in Charge (SAC) of FBI Chicago was James P. Rooney.


FBI Chicago
219 S. Dearborn, Suite 905, Chicago, IL 60604
(312) 431-1333